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So this is my 15th blog post! This will be my last post for a while because of finals and the class I’m doing this for will be over. But I have really enjoyed blogging these past eight weeks and might continue this next term!

A couple of topics I might write about:

Basketball

Thanks All Things Philly Sports!

Movies

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

TV Shows

Oregon Ducks

Food

Writing

Dogs (my dog especially)

Ireland

Jameson's Distillery in Dublin!

Traveling

News Stories

Or I could just write and write and write about whatever is in my mind at the time. That will most likely be the situation. I’ve learned a lot about blogging and how to respond to other bloggers by doing this. I really enjoyed the Linky Love posts (which, sure we had to do for class but they were fun) and also doing my own ones.

I kind of did college a little backwards in that I finished my minor before I even picked a major. I told everyone I was making baby steps but in reality I was pretty lost. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I had majored in Business and minored in Journalism instead of the other way around. Either way, marketing is still a big interest of mine. Marketing and brands are everywhere, even if we don’t realize it. Subliminal messaging constantly influences us, even as young children.

I stumbled around a nifty blog all about marketing and found a lot of interesting posts. Apparently the new fruit on the market is the Grapple, an odd combination of Concord grapes and an apple. Just reading about it and hearing that it tastes like a grape but is a crunchy apple just makes me cringe. I would much rather have little grape-sized apples. How cute would that be?!

Another post lists all of the brands that most people use as the word instead of the real name. I looked at all sixteen and realized I use the specific brand name all sixteen names instead of what the products actually are. That amazed me. But I could never go back to calling Jello-O “gelatin dessert.” Never in a million years.

I guess I have been influenced by brands just as much as the next person. But right now, I don’t mind too much.

I read a really interesting article today by Sarah Weir, a Yahoo! blogger. It’s all about the best places in the world to be for women depending on what career you desire or if you want to live the longest. Some countries that stood out to me for both positive and negative reasons were:

South Sudan: Named as the worst country to give birth in because it has around 20 midwives for the entire population. I can’t wrap my head around that because the population of Sudan is estimated to be over 8 million people. How can those numbers be correct? Do regular doctors deliver children as well, in hospitals and such and those numbers aren’t accounted for? This made me think about my two best friends who are both going to the Peace Corps. this year. Does that organization send people to places that need it the most? Are volunteers sent there accordingly?

Saudi Arabia: This country was listed as the worst place to be an athlete and the worst place to be a politician. It has never sent a woman to the Olympics and no woman has ever served for parliament. Without knowing Saudi Arabia completely it’s hard to pass judgement but it really draws into question women’s rights.

The Great U.S. of A: Being American I started this article hoping we represented ourselves in an adequate fashion. We had a decent (but not equal, not by far) amount of women in congress and a fifth of senior management jobs. The worrisome statistics about the U.S. were that life-expectancy is slowly declining and we haven’t made improvements to our maternal mortality rate for over a century.

For my last (seventh) Linky Love post I decided to address an issue that resurfaced during this year’s Grammy awards. Chris Brown first stepped into the spotlight when he was only 16 and his first album in 2005 went double Platinum. In 2009 a domestic assault charge by his then girlfriend Rihanna overshadowed Brown’s talent in the music industry. He pleaded guilty to the felony and spent five years on probation as well as additional community service and anger management class hours.

Brown made many public apologies through the media and through his crisis management team. He issued a video apology and had many interviews and statements regarding it since. But between apologies he’s had moments of anger towards his treatment regarding what happened. He claimed that it should be in the past and that people need to stop hating him for what happened. This Linky Love article discusses his reaction to fans and other celebrities reacting negatively to his Grammy nomination and win earlier this year.

The question asked was what I would do if I was in charge of Chris Brown’s public relations or what advice would I give so that these Twitter mishaps stop happening. First of all I just have to say I wouldn’t take any amount of money to attempt to spin what he did into something positive. I sometimes imagined being on that old show Fear Factor but always knowing that if spiders were involved I would walk away. No amount of money would be worth a spider.

It’s the same in this case, I wouldn’t be able to defend Chris Brown for a million dollars, or 50 or even 100. I can’t get passed what he did to Rihanna, especially after the pictures surfaced of what she looked like when she checked into the hospital. But the fact that he gets upset when people bring up his past is just ridiculous.

If he can’t accept that people are always going to hate him he is completely insane. In my mind, there is nothing worse than a man who verbally or physically abuses a woman. I wish that every woman agreed with me. I wish that men used Chris Brown as an example as how to never be. I just don’t understand how he has fans still!

Also, don’t point fingers at other rappers or celebrities who have “done worse” than you Chris, that’s just immature. And Rihanna, why are you forgiving this fool? He dyed his hair blonde…on top of everything.

As a girl I have always been intrigued by the mustache. My roommate and I like to think that if we wore a mustache we could get away with illicit activities such as going to McDonalds without being embarrassed. Because hey, we were in disguise and no one knew it was us!

That’s ridiculous, I know. But the mustache is a very mysterious entity. When I saw an article on Yahoo about the best movie mustaches I had to read on! Turns out there are only 3 types of mustaches:

1. The “Sexy.” Turns out only George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Robert Redford look gooooooooood with a mustache. And my mom would say William Hurt in Body Heat…but I can’t go there.

2. The “Funny.” Would Ron Burgundy have been as funny had he been mustacheless? I think not. Would Borat have been the same without Sasha’s mustache? Nope. A different type of this is when the character is epically cool but his mustache is so ridiculous that you can’t take him seriously (Kurt Russell in Tombstone, I’m looking at you.)

3. The “Crazy.” This was kind of touched upon earlier but some mustaches are just out of this world. They go from ridiculous to just plain crazy. This is when the facial hair completely deters from the character or the actor in general. The greatest examples of this type would be Harry Shearer in This is Spinal Tap and Steve Zahn in Happy Texas.

4. The “Creepy.” This is sometimes confused with the crazy but note that it is not the same. A creepy mustache can turn a cute guy like Matt Damon into a pedaphile. It is not to be underestimated. An already creepy fellow can transform into the creepiest man alive with a well-crafted creeper mustache. Antonio Banderas combines a look with the “creepy” and he is pretty terrifying in Four Rooms. Continue and check out Raul Julia’s “creepy” in The Addams Family or heck, just look at John Waters in general! Last but not least…

5. The “Dignified.” This is a common mustache seen on Sean Connery or in a lot of old Western movies. Clark Gable is an icon and I think the top secret reason is his mustache.

All of this is pointless though. Because Tom Selleck is #1 in terms of mustaches. His mustache is legendary and no one should be able to disagree with me. Just don’t try.

Okay, I lied. This post won’t be all about why I love Allen Iverson. But I do love him. I have a “Got Allen Iverson?” bumper sticker and hoards of memorabilia to prove it. I have every jersey for every team he’s played on, minus Georgetown and Turkey. But I just want to talk about basketball in general, thanks to inspiration from another blog. Just some things on the mind:

1. There is nothing worse than a “show” fan. I went to a Portland Trail Blazers game this past weekend and we (I say “we” because I’m an Oregonian until I graduate from college) were playing the Miami Heat. Fun fact: The Heat have the most bandwagon fans on the face of this planet. And perhaps Mars too. Don’t get me wrong, I think Dwayne Wade and Lebron James are amazingly attractive. I mean talented. But just because you love a player doesn’t mean you just hop from team to team to team like a basketball hussy. I’d marry Lebron in a nanosecond but I still rooted for the Blazers like a tolerable human being. Anyone who started liking the Heat in the past two years should have a soda poured on their head.

2. Objectivity is impossible. Irrationality is possible. Disliking players and teams for no reason at all is very enjoyable for me. But what’s even more enjoyable is latching on to something totally unrelated and using that to hate on them. Example: Tony Parker cheated on his beautiful wife, Eva Longoria, with his teammate’s wife. So in my mind he went from a talented point guard to a sleazy Frenchman. He’s having the best year of his career, go figure. Damn him. P.S. I could spend a whole post dissing on the Lakers in this fashion but perhaps that will come later.

3. Basketball is more than a job. Or it’s just a job. How many times has someone said “It’s not personal, it’s business”? Countless. Dwight Howard basically said it when he demanded to be traded a while ago. Players do that from time to time and usually they get traded immediately. The Magic, however, kept him and could keep him the whole season before his contract runs out.

What if marriages or divorces worked like that? “Oh hey honey, I want to leave you right now. I want to be with someone who will give me more money. You don’t do enough for me and I’ve stuck around for years and years and I’m not happy so I’m done.” And the spouse replies, “No, sorry, you’re stuck with me for the year. ” Talk about awkward. All of his teammates know he wants out. All of the fans know. How do you still want to be around the guy? If it’s just a job, then why can’t he pack a box of sleeves and Under Armour shirts and just leave?

4. I love Allen Iverson. Yeah, I really do. He deserves a ring. Luke Walton should hand over his ring, that’s the truth.

“Checking in” on Facebook is always an iffy situation. While I love to check my friends in at a cool restaurant, movie or sporting event I am easily annoyed by people doing the same. Cool, you’re at a Los Angeles Laker’s game… I hate that team. Cool, you’re at a Philadelphia 76er’s game…I’m jealous and probably just deleted you as a friend because of it.

It gets worse. To those people (girls, I’m looking at you) who “check in” at the gym, just stop. It’s great that you’re working out but you should sense that everyone who reads that just rolled their eyes in annoyance. Also, thanks for specifying which exact machine you’re on. That means someone could easily find you and whap you with a People magazine and tell you to shut it.

It gets worse. Thanks to my sixth Linky Love post by Carol Ostrom I have now been made aware that, thanks to Planned Parenthood, you can check in with your partner and scan a barcode on the condom wrapper you plan on using that night. I’m happy you’re being safe but that is just too much information. You’ll show up on a map wherever you are. What if you’re friends with your parents on Facebook? I don’t even want to think what could happen there.

Add "Condom Location Services" to this. Thanks Pinterest.

Most people will write this off as an early April Fool’s joke. It’s really early though…

We all make mistakes. Some are hilarious like when you go to the wrong classroom on the first day of class and sit through a whole lecture without realizing it. Some are embarrassing like when you send a text to the wrong person (this can be downright mortifying actually.) But some mistakes can be catastrophic especially if you’re a public figure or business.

For my fifth Linky Love post I chose the 8 Worst Media Disasters of February article by Brad Phillips. I got many good chuckles out of reading it but also grimaced a few times. Some were so ridiculously stupid that I couldn’t help but just shake my head in disbelief. A couple were seriously infuriating.

My favorite would have to be Jerry Sandusky’s wife trying to run over a reporter and photographer with her car while they filmed outside her house. True, it must be annoying to have paparazzi blocking your garage yet I’m sure Dottie was upset about something more than that. It’s probably a buzz kill to be the wrong gender and about 50 years older than who your husband has been caught with and Dottie just wanted to take her aggression out on someone…with her motor vehicle. Or maybe she just really had to use the bathroom.

I also hope Mitt Romney keeps it up. Those are some real gems he’s been spouting.

My best friend Sean is a movie buff. I like to think I am too and maybe even more so. He’s opinionated and if he’s not interested in a movie he flat-out won’t see it. I’m easily convinced by my Eugene movie buddy, Molly, to see things like The Vow or Arthur Christmas in 3D. We have a no-judging policy when it comes to movies and we see around two each week on average.

But Sean, being a guy, sometimes can’t see movies like The Iron Lady with his friends because they rather see Safe House (which was excellent, by the way). So he sometimes goes solo. Like a boss. Every time he does I always say two things. One, that I wish he lived here and not Indiana so that I could go with him and two, I wish I had his bravery. I have never been to the movies alone and don’t think I could ever. So this post by Miranda Ryan really hit home.

She made some valid points that you can eat what you want (you could get the biggest popcorn bucket and no friend is around to take a picture and post it on Facebook) and you can see whatever movie you want (no one to this day will see Tower Heist with me.)

But her cons were the deal breaker. No one to talk to during the movie or after the movie. Anyone who knows me knows my favorite thing in the world to do is talk. And talk. Perhaps talk some more. Especially during movies. Mostly I talk if the movie is lacking in some way or if I’m completely confused and need some assistance understanding the plot. I like to think I make really funny jokes during movies too! The people who sit behind me probably don’t agree but hey, can’t win ’em all.

After movies I like to gush about the hotness of the actors or ask how it ended (still think the director cut out the ending of Drive because the one I saw in theaters made zero sense.) If we’re being honest here, talking during and after the movie about the movie is 75 percent of the fun of going to the movies. That’s the deal breaker.

Credit to Molly for taking this little piece of blackmail. I never saw this movie, for the record.

And I’m sure if Sean knew my proclivity for being a chatty Kathy during every single movie I see he’d secretly be glad he lives in Indiana and not in Oregon. Shucks.

Fun fact about me: My biggest fear in the world is public speaking. So let’s just say I wasn’t delighted when I learned that we had a final presentation in the class I’m doing this blog for. Now I’m on the search for anything and everything to help me give a great presentation to a class. Heck, I just want to get it over with!

For my fourth Linky Love post I chose one with five tips to make a “sizzling” presentation by Mark Schaefer. After reading his five tips I translated them to represent the exact situation I am in.

1. My story is Target. Don’t forget it.

2. Care about each important point because you never know which one your audience will remember.

3. Don’t do a boring PowerPoint template. Just, don’t.

4. Pictures help with the retention of information. Kill them with kindness. I mean images.

5. Don’t rush. Breathe.

If I put the effort into the visuals of my presentation and practice the material I know I’ll be confident. I’ll fight the urge to talk reallysuperfastsopeoplecan’tunderstandme. I will slow down and let the material speak for itself. I know that Target is an amazing company that has done some great things for the community and I want everyone to know that.